My husband and I will be first time cruisers Sept of 2007 on the carnival ship Imagination out of Miami to Grand Cayman onto Ocho Rios any info you can give us would be interesting to read about what to expect of the ship or shore excursions to purchase and where the best place to buy them at would be.

My husband and I will be first time cruisers Sept of 2007 on the carnival ship Imagination out of Miami to Grand Cayman onto Ocho Rios any info you can give us would be interesting to read about what to expect of the ship or shore excursions to purchase and where the best place to buy them at would be.

Grand Cayman is safe. You can go anywhere on your own by just grabbing a taxi. You can do independent tours there to the Sting Rays and save yourself some money.

Just make sure you keep your watch on SHIP time. There will be a clock at the gangway as you leave that you can double check with.

However, Ochos is a whole different ball game.
I don't want to sound like an alarmist, however, we have walked the 5 miles from Tel Aviv to Jaffa on our own in Israel and felt safer than we did in Jamaica. We are known for grabbing a taxi in any foreign port (even when we don't speak the lanuage)...however, I would not do that in Jamaica. It is one of the very few ports that I would never do without a ship's tour (preferably) or at least an organized tour through a guide recommended on these boards.